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Author Notes:This recipe has several inspirations, including the quiche from the Tartine Bakery in San Francisco. It is a mile high, with ribbons of greens layered within. To replicate it more easily at home, I’ve adapted a reliable and delicious Better Homes and Gardens recipe and studded it with basil-flecked home-made ricotta cheese (from melissav’s white pizza recipe). You can do this with a crust, but I chose not to. Instead, I layered zucchini ribbons around the sides. Happily, the ribbons also weave through each custardy slice in a beautiful fashion, much like the inspirational quiche from Tartine. —monkeymom

Slice zucchini lengthwise into thin strips. Your ribbons don’t have to be perfect for this, I cut mine with just a chef’s knife. You can also use a mandoline or a vegetable peeler.

Heat olive oil on medium high heat. Add diced onion, thyme, a pinch of pepper, and two big pinches of salt. Cook until onions are translucent, soft, and slightly browned. Add garlic and sauté briefly. Take off heat and cool.

Mix together ricotta, basil, salt, and parmesan. Taste and add more salt, pepper, lemon zest, or parmesan to taste.

Drop 1 Tbsp of olive oil into a 9 inch round baking pan and coat the pan. Then, use excess oil to coat slices of zucchini as you line the outer rim. You can use thicker and longer slices of zucchini or layer thin slices. Add egg mixture. Then, drop spoonfuls of ricotta mixture into the egg mixture. Finally, weave remaining zucchini slices through the egg mixture in swirly patterns. Tuck some in at different angles so when you slice the quiche, you get some layered throughout. You might not need all of the zucchini, depending on how big they were. Sprinkle a little chopped basil and parmesan on top.

Bake at 350 degrees for 30--40 minutes until egg is set. The quiche shouldn’t be sloshy, just slightly wiggly. Cool quiche for at least 10 minutes.

When quiche has about 10 minutes of cooking time left, toss tomatoes with oil and a generous sprinkling of salt. Bake 10-15 minutes while quiche is baking and cooling.

Serve a slice of quiche with roasted tomatoes, some freshly cut basil and a sprinkling of parmesan.

Oh, the springform pan is a great idea! Julienned zukes also sound terrific. I have to say that I'm also going to fiddle with this more as well. I really liked how this combo for a crustless quiche turned out. Thanks very much dymnyno for workshopping this one with me!

I made this again using a springform pan. This allows the zucchini crust to show off. I mixed the egg and milk mixture and the cheese, basil mixture and then I mixed them together. It worked out ok. I think that it made the overall texture a little bit firmer. I (using my new gadget) julienned a zuke and sauteed that and then topped the quiche with an extravagant mixture of the two. It looked gorgeous!!

If only I'd thought more about the $2 pan...I tried this tonight and although the flavor was lovely the texture was not. I used a corningware-type baking dish (automatic instinct for a crustless quiche, though of course it makes no sense for a zucchini crust). I think my second mistake was trying to use too much zucchini (just 1.5, but they were medium-sized). Sigh. I look forward to giving it another try, this time in a cake pan!

I'm sorry to hear about that. But I'm glad you brought it up....Perhaps only one zucchini per quiche is a good place to start for others. I'll try it in my 9 in metal cake pan when I get home again. Thanks for the feedback!

I finally got around to trying the recipe in a cake pan, and it made all the difference! The custard set perfectly: delicate, silky, so delicious. I managed to fit most of a very large zucchini in there, so it really is the pan that makes the difference...

I love smitten kitchen. I've also chased the elusive Keller quiche...it is frustrating. For this week's theme I kept thinking of zucchini tarts and crusty things but I just couldn't bring myself to test buttery crusty things in Hawaii. Too much bread making this year!

I used a deep cake pan...it turned out very creamy...delicious...I like the use of the zucchini as crust. I think that next time I will salt the zucchini and squeeze as much moisture as I can to make the quiche more solid. Thank god for this contest...I may have planted too many zukes again this year!

Thanks Jennifer Ann! I've done this BH&G recipe with either whole or nonfat milk and it still turns out great! I accidently used nonfat milk instead of whole for the ricotta and it also still was great too (no sub for the heavy cream though!).

I'm having friends over for brunch & we'll be taking a hike before we eat. I would love to prepare this in advance in the Springform Pan & stick it in the fridge until we get back (about 2-1/2 hours later). Then bake it. Is this asking too much of the Springform Pan & The Zucchini sides?